


Dungeons Dark and Deep

by marionetteblues



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, fourth year bbs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 15:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17124224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marionetteblues/pseuds/marionetteblues
Summary: James and Sirius aren't the only ones looking for mandrake  leaves in the middle of the night.





	Dungeons Dark and Deep

In the dead of night, it wasn’t hard to be heard, but the two boys took no extreme measures to be quiet. They had spent too many nights roaming the emptied halls of Hogwarts to fear discovery. The Invisibility Cloak that they were huddled under was not much more than tradition by now, though even they knew that it was a necessary precaution for their journey back. They couldn’t risk someone finding them. Not this time.

Once they were clear of the Entrance Hall and standing in the dark, narrow stone passage that led deep down into the dungeons, Sirius Black shrugged the Cloak off of himself and shook out his shaggy black hair. 

James Potter folded the Cloak carefully over his arm. “ _ Lumos _ ,” he muttered, and held his wand far out in front of him, the staircase flooding with light until it took a sharp turn to the left. The light illuminated their faces and the glint in Sirius’ eye. 

“I still say we’d have a better shot if we went to the greenhouses,” he said lightly. Sirius walked with his hands in his pockets. No one would have believed that these boys had any goal other than traipsing downstairs for another potions lesson.

“Are you mad?” replied James, one eyebrow quirked. His chin turned in the direction of his best friend, but he kept his eyes forward and listened intently. It wouldn’t have been the first time they’d been ambushed by a group of Slytherins doing their best to get as close as possible to being real Death Eaters. “Risking your life and your Quaffle-catching fingers is only worthwhile when there’s someone else around to impress. Trust me.” 

“Well, I told you, there may not be any left at this stage,” Sirius said. “Mandrake leaves are popular ingredients, we use them at least once a week.” 

“Which is why Slughorn is bound to always keep enough of them around,” James countered with an easy shrug. “They’ll be there.” 

“Alright, alright,” grumbled Sirius, rolling his eyes with one hand thrown up in surrender. “Not that we took a vote or anything. Remus definitely would have agreed with me,” he added on a grumble. 

“We don’t need to tell him every detail,” said James sharply. “And he’d just tell us we weren’t allowed to steal mandrake leaves from  _ anyone.  _ That wouldn’t help us much.” The corner of his mouth tugged up in a satisfied smile. “Besides, I’m not even sure Sprout  _ has  _ Mandrakes this year.” 

“Of course she does, the second years take care of them every year,” Sirius said. “Seems like caretaking of Mandrakes is absolutely essential knowledge for a bunch of twelve year olds.”

“Well, I don’t think anyone anticipated that two fourth years would steal a bunch of mandrake leaves when they were contemplating their inclusion in the curriculum. Besides,” James went on, just as they stopped at one of the doors that led to the different chambers of the labyrinthine dungeons, “I don’t fancy trying to chop off Mandrake leaves from the real thing.” 

“Why not?” Sirius barked a laugh. “It sounds like fun.” 

“Because I don’t look good in earmuffs,” James said simply. “And apart from that, you remember what Sprout said? If you’re not trained, they’ll cry for hours and hours. And as amusing as it was to see Colin Dinsmore pass out when  _ we  _ were in second year –” Sirius snorted at that again at that, much louder and  _ much  _ more obnoxiously, “We’re not murderers.” 

“But who  _ knows  _ how long these leaves have just been lying there?” Sirius pointed out. “I’m not looking forward to walking around with that in my mouth for  _ a month. _ Remus had better appreciate this.” 

“He will,” James said confidently. “It’ll be wicked if we can finally manage it.” 

“Yeah. How many other fourth years can turn into animals?” 

Sirius moved to unlock the door of the classroom, muttering, “ _ Alohamora, _ ” before throwing James a grin. They waited for a click, but none came. Their brows furrowed, an exact mirror of the other, before Sirius shrugged, and wrenched the door open with ease. 

“Well, we can’t  _ tell  _ anyone,” James muttered. 

Sirius threw him a glance, a mixture of doubt and amusement. “I  _ know  _ that,” he said slowly, his tone defensive. “I wasn’t going to.” 

“You know we could  _ actually  _ be expelled for this, right?” James said cheerfully.

Sirius didn’t get a chance to answer - there came a smash from the middle of the room, and the two boys stopped dead, raised their wands in identical movements, shoulders squared. 

“Oh,  _ bollocks.”  _

Two separate crashes came next, a heartbeat apart, and tiny shards of smashed glass rained down on the boys’ feet. James raised his wand a little higher, letting its light reach every corner of the room. 

“Evans?” Sirius eyed her suspiciously. 

Lily Evans was not a girl that they’d had much to do with, apart from when she was with the other girls in her dorm. She was mates with Snape, and she never really joined in when a fight got started, but she seemed to be there, hovering in the background, drifting in and out of the scene like a ghost.

She was a Gryffindor, and fiercely proud of it - she screamed louder than anyone at their Quidditch matches and was always eager to win them a few house points. James supposed that was why she never bothered with him or his friends about Snape. Things were bad enough without making enemies in your own house, especially for a Muggleborn. 

And that was really all James knew about her. 

“Oh, it’s just you,” she muttered when her eyes finally focused on them, adjusting to the beam of light from James’ wand. 

Her expression was just a flash of surprise and indignation before settling on a scowl, but there was no real heat behind it. She seemed content to assume - accurately - there wasn’t much chance of these boys turning her in for sneaking around, after all. 

James took her in, strands of her dark red hair falling loosely from the bun tied at the back of her head and curling on her neck, making her features softer. He realized belatedly that she was in her dressing gown - not exactly proper attire for skulking around the castle in the wee hours of the mid-morning, but not everyone could have perfected it the way they had. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, jutting her chin out with a challenge in her tone. Looking like she  _ belonged  _ there, in a nightgown and slippers, and they had no right to interrupt. 

“We could ask you the same thing,” James retorted, his hand jumping to ruffle his hair a little, skin at the back of his neck prickling with heat. He didn’t like the suspicious glint in her eyes; she may have been a Gryffindor at heart, but her best friend was a nasty piece of slime, and if he heard  _ anything  _ about what James and his friends were up to … He needed to look normal. 

“I asked you first,” she said coolly, her eyebrows raised and a delicate flush rising up her neck. In her hands, she balanced a few vials and jars against her chest. James thought he saw something move in one of them. He squinted in an effort to identify the ingredients she held - you didn’t grow up in the house of a famous potions mogul without getting  _ something  _ out of it. 

But it was too dark, and she kept moving, shifting her arm to balance everything without dropping anything else, and he couldn’t get a good look. 

“Yeah, but there’s more of us than you,” Sirius countered. The three were silent for a moment as that sunk in, Lily and James both staring at Sirius with a look of bewilderment, James with a hint of embarrassment. 

“Well, it’s none of your business, so I’ll stay out of yours if you stay out of mine,” she told them with a coy smile, her movements exaggerated as she gathered up her things like she was telling them,  _ just let me be on my way.  _

James scrunched his nose up, eyeing her suspiciously. Sirius snorted. “You’re up to something, Evans.” 

A smile played about Lily’s mouth as she surveyed them, blinking rapidly. They just stood, sizing each other up. 

“Well,  _ I’m  _ not doing anything that will get me expelled,” she remarked. Her eyes glinted with triumph and intelligence, and when they landed on James, it made his face burn. He darted his gaze elsewhere, clearing his throat and shifting his weight between his feet. “You’re not going to hurt anyone, are you?” 

“Of course not,” Sirius snapped, which made James frown. When his patience was wearing thin, there was no hiding it, and usually there was nothing James could do but watch, the way he would watch a rope fraying more and more before it snapped. “What are you talking about?” Sirius added. 

Lily quirked one eyebrow, distinctly unimpressed. “You said you might get expelled when you walked in, genius.” 

There was a pregnant pause of utter silence before Sirius broke it, his shoulders hunched and voice clipped, but striving to sound normal. “That was a joke. If McGonagall didn’t do it for the thing with the frogs, she’s never going to kick us out of here.” 

James bit back a laugh, shaking his head.  

He wasn’t quite sure what he’d expected from Lily, maybe an insult or a threat, but she almost looked amused, perhaps intrigued, and oceans away from looking like any kind of threat.  He turned the matter over in his mind, and found it really wasn’t that different from his previous experience with Lily, however minimal it was. In fact, it was sort of the way James had seen her look when he’d dramatically weave wild tales between classes and dare the gathered crowd to guess the truthfulness.  None of them had much success - even Maddie, who had spent enough time with him on the Quidditch pitch for James to consider her a friend.

Or the times Lily would congratulate him after a particularly hard won match and thank him for winning her a few galleons.  He’d even noticed it in class, when they fell into competition and fought to hide their smiles but not the desperation in their eyes to beat the other. There were no identified stakes and no enumerated rules - it was a rare occurrence, and neither of them had an understanding of what losing meant, or even who they were up against beyond just another of their classmates, just the knowledge that one  _ had  _ to win. 

Always a plain smile, but with something so strong in her gaze it seemed like sparks should have been flying off her, something that warned of an electric shock if his skin touched hers. It seemed to brighten up even the darkest corners of the room, but even as James watched it dimmed. 

He didn’t know if that look always slipped away, but this time, it didn’t last. Before long, Lily’s face turned to a scowl, and in a moment, the boys had schooled theirs from cautious expressions to that carefully practiced aloofness that they carried with them so often it was like a mask to be slipped on at a moment’s notice. 

“Unless she caught wind that we apparently tried to jam a broom up Bryan Macmillan’s arse,” James said lightly, punctuating his words with a roll of his eyes, hands jammed in his pockets.

_ “Threatened to _ ,” Sirius corrected him immediately. “We didn’t actually do it.” His face turned dark when he spoke - it was easier to be accused of things when you actually did them. “Not that anyone could tell the difference,” Sirius went on, waving a hand dismissively. His smirk was back in an instant. “ _ Someone  _ stuck a massive stick up there.” 

James just smiled, indulging his best friend - but Lily coughed out a surprised laugh before she dissolved into peals of delighted giggles. 

“She agrees,” James remarked flatly. 

Sirius grinned appreciatively, nodding before taking a step forward. “Evans! Shh! You’re going to wake up the entire dungeon!” James was quite sure that no one in the room considered most of the people in the dungeons to be spectacular life-forms, but the dungeons were still  _ inhabited,  _ technically.  

“Sorry,” she hissed, sobering up to the best of her ability, though she still smiled.

“Some people,” Sirius remarked, shaking his head. 

“Amateurs,” James chimed in, not even a heartbeat later, his mouth quirking up at the corner. 

Lily folded her arms, watching them with an eyebrow raised and the tiniest wisp of a smile playing about her mouth.  

“I know what you’re doing, you know.” 

She took a step towards them so they were no more than a foot away - her voice lowered when she did, and she started to place her supplies on the nearest table one by one. One of the vials slipped out of her hands, and James caught it on instinct, fingers curling around the jar carefully. 

“Oh, you do?” Sirius was saying cheerfully, carrying on like nothing had changed. “Maybe you could fill us in.” 

“You think if you keep talking enough shit that I’ll just get annoyed and drop it,” Lily said, her mouth quirking up at the corners.

James blinked as he turned the tiny container over in his hand, staring at the words scrawled on the label. Something felt heavy on his chest and his breath came shallower and shallower as his eyes traced the spiky scrawl. 

“Well, you’ve certainly been paying attention,” Sirius remarked, making Lily scoff. “What?” Sirius laughed. “You know all our moves, and  _ you  _ don’t seem to be fed up quite yet, no matter how much we do it.” 

“That’s because I go straight past fed up to blind rage.” 

Sirius just clicked his tongue. James wasn’t looking at him, he couldn’t see his expression, but he did register when Sirius leaned in and delightfully replied, “At least we provoke a  _ strong reaction. _ ” 

They continued to snipe, even though it was very clear there was no real heat behind the words. Just a little irritation, maybe at being inconvenienced on a night time errand on Lily’s part. Maybe at not being adored on Sirius’. 

“It’s not  _ my  _ fault that the rest of the school is stupid enough to think you’re both so terribly amusing. But I’d hate for you to think that I was that dense as well.”

“Well, I did. But I didn’t realize you were one for letting people put words in your mouth. Sounds like you’ve been listening to your Slytherin pal a little too much.” 

Lily clicked her tongue, clearly put out. Her smile had turned sour, clearly rattled by the turn in conversation. “You think I need him to tell me what to think of you?” 

“No, but you let him do it anyway.” 

“Did you follow me down here to interrogate me on my friendships? Is this the part where you tell me none of it’s true, and you’re just innocent victims in his campaign to smear your good names?”

“What do you need mandrake leaves for?” James demanded suddenly, finally tearing his gaze away from the jar in his hand and cutting short the straying conversation. 

The more that they dwelled on Snape, the more the warmth in the air would seep out of the room. He had that effect; James could see her freeze them out when Snape was around. She stepped away from the easy-going,  _ friendly  _ atmosphere they all enjoyed when she was with the girls in her dorm, from the warmth of it. She ignored that it was  _ good  _ a lot of the time. And James would wonder what it was Snivellus had told her about them. It was probably true in technicality, but he wished she didn’t know so much. Not the way Snivellus told it, at least. 

Sirius had started to say something else, but he went quiet when James spoke, snapping his head in the direction of his friend. “ _ What _ ?” he hissed. 

Lily’s cheeks flamed, noticeable even in the dim light, which gave James a fierce sense of triumph that he really couldn’t trace. 

“What’s it to you?” she said, with a tiny little smile and a dangerous gleam in her eyes. She had only pointed her wand in his direction once or twice in four years, but it wasn’t exactly a secret that Lily Evans was so good with her wand it was downright dangerous to be on the other end of it. 

She reached for the jar, and without thinking, James jerked back, holding it out of her reach. She was just about as tall at him, her narrowed eyes level with his. He could hear his heartbeat starting to hammer in his ears, and his grip tightened on the mandrake leaves. 

He threw her a smile, tempted to take a step back as her expression grew stormy. But he stood his ground. His nonchalance was starting to fray at the edges, and that simply would not do. 

“Is there any left?” he asked her casually. 

She paused, long enough so that James knew the answer before she even opened her mouth. 

“Why?” she asked instead of answering his question. 

“Because we need it,” said Sirius with a little huff of impatience. They needed it badly. They were running out of time, and with each full moon, Remus came back a little paler, with a little less fight in him. 

Lily said nothing, her gaze falling on the tiny glass vial that James still held in his hand, his arm stretched out behind him to hold it away from her. “That’s the last of it. And I had it  _ first, _ ” she said, lunging forward to grab it. 

James jerked backwards like she’d clawed him, her shoulders squared opposite his as she tried to get around him, his reflexes too quick for her. He wrestled with her arms for a few seconds, batting her away and laughing in surprise. “Calm  _ down,  _ Evans!!” 

“Don’t make me hex you, James.” 

“You wouldn’t,” he muttered, a small smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. It was easy to smile if it kept Evans from growing suspicious, but inside, he felt panic rising up his chest and to his throat. 

Sirius was looking at them grapple with his eyebrows raised - he was a little taller than the other two, so he held out his hand for the jar, which James willingly gave up and took a step away from her. 

“Come on, Evans,” Sirius said then, in his best tone for negotiation. “We’re not Slytherins, we don’t go around hexing people who don’t deserve it.” 

Lily snorted derisively. “I’m not sure you can say that about yours-”

“I said people who  _ don’t deserve it,”  _ he repeated with emphasis, but her expression still rankled. 

“Anything we’ve done, they’ve done ten times worse,” James said with a firm nod.  

“At least  _ we  _ haven’t attempted to string someone by their ankles in one of these dungeons,” Sirius continued, his tone purely conversational. “But that’s not even important. I’m sure whatever it is you’re cooking up is important, but not more important than this.” 

Lily folded her arms, leaning back on her heels with her hip popped to the side and her head tilted the other way, watching them. “Tell me what it is, and I’ll decide.” 

The two boys shared a nervous glance and said nothing. 

Lily shifted her weight. “It must be really wrong if you’re not even going to brag.” She grinned a triumphant grin at the silence that met her words, and she held out her hand. “I  _ will  _ hex you, Black.”

She drew her wand, and Sirius drew his, and in the light from the tip of James’ they stood, forming a triangle with their wands held in front of them. 

James huffed after a second, his lips pursed forwards with annoyance. “Right. I have a better idea. There’s a fair way to do this.” 

She raised her eyebrows, but tilted her chin and relented, holding up her hands in surrender. “By all means.”  

Slughorn’s store was disorganized and unruly, his handwriting barely legible, but eventually James’ hand closed around what he was looking for. Leeches. 

Sirius placed the vial of mandrake leaves on the highest shelf of the bookcase beside the door, and casually stood between Lily and the exit. 

Leeches were kept in a separate vial each - James had three in his hands, juggling them as he turned back to look at her. “Right.” 

She blinked at him for a second and then rolled her eyes, failing to fight an amused smile. “Come on, Potter. I want to get to bed.” 

He caught them all with ease, carefully extracting the first leech from its prison and placing it on the desk. “Just across the desk.” 

Lily caught on quick, and she laughed, so suddenly and loudly, like it was drawn from her without her knowing it. “Alright, Potter. You’re on.” 

She walked over to where he stood, leaned in close - James went very still, watching her as she surveyed the two leeches in his hands, skin tingling a little, from the attention he supposed - and eventually she selected one of the leeches, before she paused, pointing to the other. 

“What’s that for?” 

“For Sirius.” 

She scowled at him, but there were bright red patches of excitement on her cheeks and a gleam in her eyes that was unfamiliar. “No. It’s you two against me. I’m not going two on one. You said this was fair.” 

She stared back at him resolutely and the two of them squared off in a silent argument for several seconds before James relented, ducking his head and dragging his fingers through his hair. “Fine.” 

It would have been a first, if a teacher had walked into the potions classroom at that moment. Two boys fully dressed and a girl in her nightclothes, all yelling at the top of their lungs as they watched two leeches slowly crawl across the desk, meandering and zig-zagging as they want. 

“Stay on target!” Lily yelled at her own leech, before she swore and turned away, hitting James’ chest as a result. 

“Ow! Watch it, Evans!” he yelped, rubbing the spot she’d punched him. 

She tried to scowl, but she was smiling. “I’ll watch it when you control your leech,” she replied, flaming red patches on her cheeks. “He’s playing dirty.” 

James blinked between her and the leeches, a strange, unfamiliar warmth seeping through him from his chest as he shot back, “It’s not like I can control him. What makes you think he’s a ‘he’?” 

“I have ways,” she told him with an air of mystery. 

He blinked at her silently for a moment with his lips curving into a smile that he found strangely forceful, and she just stared right back, her own mouth in a wry smile of her own, her chin jutting out defiantly. 

And then Sirius cleared his throat. “Your leeches are shagging.” 

The moment broke, and Lily and James tore their eyes away from each other sharply, attention darting back to the desk. 

James cleared his throat. “Little Fleamont wouldn’t dare -” 

“Fleamont?” Lily repeated, spluttering as she pulled out her wand, poking at her own leech with the end. “Get a move on, Mildred!” Mildred didn’t move. Sirius may have still had his wand in his pocket, but James had heard him whisper a stunning spell aimed at the poor leech. 

It may have wounded James’ sense of honour, but this was one game he couldn’t fight fair. They couldn’t wait any longer, which meant they couldn’t afford to lose. 

James started to laugh, a gentle but uncontrollable bubbling from deep inside him. “Yes, Fleamont. Named after my father.” 

“I wish you’d stop trying to make everyone believe that’s  _ actually  _ your father’s name,” said Lily with a snort. 

James’ eyes just flickered to Sirius’ for just a moment and they both smiled, but they said nothing. 

“And Fleamont takes the day! He takes after his father, we never lose a match,” James roared with triumph, holding out his hand for Lily to shake. 

“Fair play, Evans, good game.” 

She pouted dramatically, but he could see the mirth in her eyes. He liked it. It made him go quiet for a moment longer, until she was poking her finger into his chest. 

“ _ You  _ -” she said pointedly, “are responsible for finding me some more. Deal?” 

James blinked, swallowed hard against a sudden tightness in his throat, and extended his hand further. She took it and shook. 

“Deal,” he told her, winking, and was rewarded with a tiny pink glow in Lily’s face. 

Relief washed over him as the three of them made their way back up to the dormitory, walking in companionable silence. Lily wasn’t bad at sneaking around, and James and Sirius were more than happy to keep quiet. 

With the mandrake leaves safely tucked away in James’ trunk from the time they got back to the dorm, the three of them arrived at breakfast the next morning with crinkled eyes and dark circles under them that betrayed a lack of sleep. But they were smiling, all of three of them, the boys from triumph, especially when they caught another’s eye. 

News travelled fast in Hogwarts, and all anyone could talk about was the leeches - curled up  and spitting a ll over Slughorn’s desk - and what that meant. Sirius and James shared a glance at breakfast and raised an eyebrow each in one identical motion, before James looked over at Lily, looking utterly innocent as they walked down to the dungeons.

He frowned a little to himself as he fell into step beside her - he meant to speak, but he was quiet for a few seconds, surprising even himself. How did he ask someone if he could expect to be in trouble for the leeches - what Slughorn had dubbed “a deep personal attack” - without it just sounding petty?

Lily seemed to be one step ahead of him. “Don’t worry. My lips are sealed.” 

He nodded quietly, a little awkward as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his robes. Her friends were walking directly in front of him, so he kept his voice low. “What were you trying to do, anyway?” 

“You first,” she said teasingly, looking at him expectantly. 

He felt his face flush and kept his gaze away from hers. “Something for a friend,” he told her, cryptic and mysterious, but with none of the usual bravado that would have accompanied such a line. 

To her credit, she seemed to accept that with a small sigh. “I was trying to make my own Sleekeazy’s,” she told him with a reluctant expression. “I ran out, and I can’t get more until I get to Hogsmeade.” 

They came to a stop outside the potions classroom, waiting to be called in, and James started laughing, a gentle and warm laugh, but one he couldn’t control, bursting out of him and filling up the entire corridor. 

“What’s so funny?” she demanded, with a nervous little laugh of her own, like she didn’t know if she should be laughing too, or if his amusement was at her expense. 

He just shrugged his shoulders. From the end of the corridor, he could see her best friend enter through a door that came from the dungeons, so he took a step back to his own friends - to his own side - but he threw her a small smile. 

“There’s no mandrake leaves in Sleekeazy’s, Evans.” 

She raised her eyebrows. “You know that, do you?” she grinned, though her eyes went a little rounder when he nodded. “How would you know?” 

He just blinked at her, his lips barely curved into a smile. 

“What’s in it, then, Potter?” she said. 

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you,” he said lightly, taking a step back towards his friends. She spluttered wordlessly in indignation, making him laugh again. He returned to his friends, his own  _ side,  _ even if he hated to think of it like that, and she only shook her head, letting out a breath like she couldn’t believe what had just happened, her lips pulled into a smile. 

He met her eyes once more, just before they entered the classroom. She shot him a playful scowl, shaking her head as she passed him. She held his gaze for just a moment, a heartbeat longer than normal, making him grin. 

And then Sirius had his attention again as they sat down, grumbling, “What did they even  _ have _ these dungeons for when they built the place? The students?” 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
